A party of four stands at the entrance of a quiet, dark cave. The party leader, a Kitsune named Iskra, wears his leather armor with pride. He quietly waves the party inwards, his hands covered with weathered runic gloves to help hone his magus skills. A small catfolk leans on her arcane staff. “Zisya, please stay present with us. We need your magic to help this quest, and please be careful not to trip on your robes this time.” the Kitsune says matter-of-factly. Zisya, embarrassed, replies “I won't… I got them tailored back at the Kai Manor. It shouldn’t happen again.” Two dwarves let out a chuckle, one wielding dual-tower shields and the other hefting a crossbow over his shoulder. “Haymitch, don’t you think that this quest just seems a bit off?” Yuna cautiously asks her brother. His heavy plate armor tinks together as he turns to her and shakes his head slowly. “Even if that is the case, we have to trust our party mates, for they will not betray us and leave us to die like our last majority elvish party.” A quiet hiss comes from Iskra as he sheathes the obsidian-black short sword he was inspecting and pushes forward into the mouth of the daunting cave. Iskra overhears the two dwarves' quiet conversation and simply offers, “We have a warrior, a ranger, a mage, and a magus, no one will be dying today. This is a simple reconnaissance mission, in and out.”
As the party enters, the light vanishes quickly and the four progress deeper into the narrowing cavern. The opening evolves into a set of rough-hewn stairs that worm their way deeper underground. Zisya halts the party as she pulls a solid black metal rod out of her bag and begins chanting words of power. “Let this rod act as an anchor, providing a safe area to return.” The rod slammed into the ground and was absorbed by the stone. “This will act as our recall point if we find ourselves out of our depths. Once I begin the recall spell, rush to me quickly.” the catfolk states adamantly. The party descended the stairs, noticing the stairs and walls getting smoother. The shielded dwarf, Haymitch, lets out a growl, “This isn’t natural, looks like the stone has been smoothed with heat or acid. I gather that something built this area down here.” After hours of walking down the seemingly endless stairs, the party reaches the bottom and steps onto an unnaturally smooth landing, cloaked in heavy darkness.
Besides the three tunnels extending from the North, South, and Southeast, the foot of the staircase is bare of anything resembling sapient intervention. As the party walks toward the southern exit, Iskra reaches out to clasp the shoulder of the crossbow-hefting dwarf, “Let me go ahead Yuna, my enhanced vision will make short work of this darkness. Set up a defensive position with your back to this wall.” He says as she points to the wall to the right of the opening.
Before Iskra could move off into the tunnel, Zisya hands Iskra a small engraved pebble. “Telepathic Pebble - pretty useful. Use it if you run into trouble, yeah?” she advised. “Of course, Zisya. After the last lair, I won’t go against your advice again,” Iskra states softly, staring at the half tail that the kitsune has left. Iskra takes a stealthy stance, making no noise, as he heads off into the tunnel. He could hear slight whispers from his party as he took step after careful step, and after 30 paces the party’s sound faded away.
For a few dozen yards, the kitsune could only hear the sound of his heart, thumping in his chest as he scouted out the tunnel. There are multiple offshoots, branching off the main tunnel like an ant hive. I hope it's not giant ants, I hate those things. Iskra thought to himself, remembering one of his first adventures that occurred before the Institute started training adventurers. Iskra, while distracted by the memories of that encounter, was unaware of the *thing* crawling on the ceiling towards him. The creature, slowly making its way above Iskra, knocked loose a rock, causing the kitsune to pull himself from the daydream.. As he inspected the rock, Iskra noticed that it looked more like the rotting foot of some amphibian. He looked up to the ceiling just in time to see the four-foot-long, scaly creature dropping down on him.
Immediately, Iskra rolled to the right, dodging the initial attack of the stonekin salamander. In this specific tunnel, the roll carried him to the wall, where he used the momentum of the roll to stand up, his back to the wall. Iskra faced off against this salamander, but something felt unnerving. The head of the salamander looked like half of its scales had been flayed off, leaving the skull exposed. The creature lunged in Iskra’s direction as he let out a word of power, “Shock.” electricity began to coil up his arm as he dodged to the left, brushing his hand on the back of the salamander. The spell sent a convulsing shock through the salamander's body, stunning it briefly. The momentum of the salamander sent it careening into the tunnel wall, cracking the hard stone wall. The lull in combat gave Iskra enough time to unsheathe his sword.
Iskra took a fighting stance with his black blade held in one hand above his head, and his free hand still conducting electricity from the spell behind his back. Instead of lunging at the adventurer, the salamander chomped on the wall, using the crack it made as a leaver point, the creature broke off a large stone and spit it at Iskra. While Iskra was busy dodging the projectile, he, unfortunately, could not avoid the acid splash the stone made as it collided with the wall. The acid hit the back of Iskra's left leg, and the salamander rushed in. On the ground, Iskra released another word of power, “Chiling '', as frost rose up his blade. The salamander opened its jaws for a vicious bite, only to be parried by Iskra’s blade. The salamander reeled back as the frost from the blade transferred to the inside of its mouth. Iskra took this opportunity to lean into the parry and counterattack with a thrust into the top of the salamander’s open mouth. His blade sank into the salamander's brain and left the creature limp on the ground. Iskra pulled out the Telepathic Pebble and sent a message to his party. “Get down here, I don’t know if I can continue alone. Come prepared.”
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The party quickly arrived with weapons drawn. Upon seeing the dead salamander, Zisya commented, “You coulda let us do some of the work… Did we rush here just to see your victory?” Iskra responded with a cocky grin as he pulled himself up, “Well I do have the highest body count, maybe you could be faster next time?” “You called us AFTER it was dead… AND you cut half of its face off?!” exclaimed Zisya. Iskra, with a serious expression, matter-of-factly replied, “No, that wasn’t me. It came at me like that.”
Zisya and Yuna, intrigued instantly by the news, begin using mundane and magical diagnoses, fervently prodding and poking the now-dead creature. “It's been…cursed? No, not cursed, but something similar.” Zisya says, still casting a spell, “It’s almost like a sickness, a plague.” “Its back foot fell off, that's what alerted me to it,” Iskra replied. Yuna shoots back while pointing to the back of the salamander, “The foot didn’t fall off, it was replaced. Seems like the wee lizard was eating the excess.” Iskra notices a metallic foot in place of the original. “Let's keep scouting, the mission was to find the cause of the sickness up above, maybe this salamander just got infected and someone was trying to help it,” Haymitch said, lifting his shields back into defensive position. The rest of the party gathering their belongings, continued down the main tunnel, ever watchful for another surprise attack.
No other attack came; however, the party felt like they were being watched as they walked further into the dark tunnel. Iskra held up a hand, “I see something coming toward us, about 30 yards down. Against the walls, now. Hurry!” He commanded. The party, two to each side, hugged the walls with their backs, listening as the footsteps and scrapes came ever closer to them. Iskra was the first to make out the figures - a few humanoid beings, five to be exact, all wearing hooded long cloaks. As the figures hobbled closer, the party heard the magical whirring of machines. The five figures stopped about 15 feet away from the party, peering into the tunnel behind them. The figures rushed towards the party without any signal, as they let out a screech that sounded like squealing metal, their words barely intelligible, “Non-C.O.R.E. entities found. Proceed with indoctrination.”
Haymitch launched from the wall, both shields raised, and slammed them down on the first of the five beings, his shields creating a miniature wall. Yuna deftly slid up behind him, shooting her crossbow twice before reaching him. One of the arrows veered off down the tunnel, while the other slammed into the figure at the back of the pack, momentarily stopping their movement forward. Zisya lets out words of power herself, with more power soaking each word, “Great energy of destruction, find my enemies, and not my allies, Fireball!” The magic ball of fire flew past the shield wall, over the heads of the two enemies engaged with the wall, landing between the enemy’s ranks. The spell exploded outward, and the tunnel was engulfed with hungry flames. The fire spread out rapidly like a disease, swallowing the five enemies in a bath of heat and fire. When the flames reached the rest of the party, the fire flowed around them like water, excluding them from the harmful effects of the spell. Iskra joined the formation, the sword once again held parallel to the floor, now held above his head. In the light of the fire, the party could finally see what their foes looked like. Three of the creatures were heavily enchanted metal golems, while the other two were humans; yet, somehow their silhouettes did not match that of a human. One of the humans had a leg made of metal and metal shimmering on its chest, invoking the image of an individual being taken over by living metal. The other human didn’t look quite as infected by the metal, having a hand of metal attached to their organic arm and their leg looking like the chest of the former.
The group of five attackers gathered themselves up, forming a line in front of the shield wall. The three golems' arms whirred as their hands pulled back revealing an empty hole. Iskra's intuition was telling him to run, but before he could get a word out, the golems let loose with a torrent of acid from each of their mouths, soaking the party. Zisya tried her hardest, but to much avail, she could not cast a shield spell in time to block the acid launched at them. The sound of splattering acid hitting her party mates filled her ears. As Zisya looked down, her gaze fell upon Yuna. The dwarf staring back up with one remaining eye, the stare vacant and lifeless. Zisya’s eyes trailed down to Yuna’s now exposed heart and witnessed the final slow beat of her party mate’s heart. Holding back tears she starts to chant a recall spell, the final goal being the anchor at the top of the stairs. As she tries to concentrate, the screams of both Iskra and Haymitch invade her ears. Halfway through the spell, one of the Humans lets out a grunt as they heft up their arm and fire a crossbow bolt right at Zisya’s head. The bolt explodes before it even hits her shield, knocking her back and breaking concentration on both of her spells, which in turn causes a mana backlash. The Mana floods her system, causing mind-rattling pain as it causes internal damage to her organs and brain, as well. Spell-shocked and on the floor convulsing, Zisya takes her last breath as a golem rushes up and pierces her with a spike coming from its hand. Haymitch tried to leave his shield and run, but couldn’t. The shields had been melted at the bottom, and his feet along with them. He looked up to Iskra, mouthing an apology as he plunged his knife through his own heart.
Iskra, with a burning arm and acid running down his back, knows his fate is sealed. He casts his last spell, “Swift Step”, and appears 100 feet back the way they came. He sheaths his sword and removes the scabbard from his belt. “Return home, you belong to her now. Guide her, help her. Don’t let her end up like me.” As Iskra hears the footsteps pounding down the tunnel, an arrow flies from the darkness. The sword, levitating, deflects the arrow, and for a moment floats there. “I’m already dead, Osada. Please listen to me. I don’t want you falling into the wrong hands.” Two more arrows fired from the golems fly straight at Iskra, both being deflected. The sword, black as night, leaves its master groaning on the floor, dying, as it flies out of the underground and toward its home, already planning on how to honor its master's dying wish.